by Logan Castle
*
“Wake up!!”
Still captivated in the throes of a deep sleep, even when my eyes cracked open, it was impossible to tell whether I was awake or still dreaming. The hands that shook me vigorously, along with the desperate plea sounding in my ears were real enough, however. It took several more moments to clear the cobwebs from my brain, and a surge of adrenaline was soon coursing through my body. I barely even registered the pain that exploded from my shattered ribs as I quickly stood up, looking around with eyes as big as saucers and trying to figure out where the hell I was.
“What’s going on?!” I shouted, or at least, I thought I did. Truthfully, even my speech wasn’t quite working properly yet.
“We have to go! They’re coming!”
Her foreboding words implored me to action and I shook my head violently before setting my eyes squarely on Lynn. Through my mental fog, I didn’t recognize her at first but now her identity was as clear as day. She was looking at me with undisguised panic in her eyes and her movements were shifty and erratic. She had a dark rifle in her hands that was primed and ready.
“Who’s coming? Larry?” I dared to inquire.
Lynn spun around on me and grabbed me by the arm, pushing me towards the side of the room where the door was. “No! The Cyphers. They’ve discovered our location!”
She rushed me through the door with the barrel of her gun digging into my back, but I couldn’t stop my litany of questions. “Who the fuck are the Cyphers? And why are they coming for me?!”
From behind, Lynn reached her hand across my face and clasped it tightly over my mouth, halting our forward progress and silencing me. She whispered into my ear. “The Cyphers are Isaac’s own personal bodyguards. During a well-coordinated strike at their main base of operations, we managed to capture Isaac and we brought him here. We were hoping to end the death squads and find a way to stop the ongoing destruction of our world. Somehow, and I’m still trying to figure that out, he managed to switch places with you.”
She pulled her hand away from my mouth so I took the opportunity to whisper back to her. “Are you saying that he escaped into my reality and threw me into this one?”
She thought about it for a few seconds and nodded. “Once we captured him, he must’ve known his time in this reality was growing short. Or maybe he finally found what he’d been searching for the whole time…” she trailed off and faced me curiously. But I already knew what he’d found.
Plum.
Remembering herself, Lynn nudged me with the tip of her rifle. “No more questions!” The audible trembling in her voice spoke volumes. She was deathly afraid of the Cyphers. Whatever or whoever they were, if they could scare this seemingly unfazed, courageous woman, I supposed I should be afraid of them too. But then I realized the reason they were here. It was to rescue the other Isaac, someone they would, no doubt, assume was me.
“Don’t even think it,” Lynn whispered as she glared at my eyes. “The Cyphers have ways of proving your identity and as soon as they discover you aren’t the person they think you are, they’ll kill you.”
I didn’t respond but stepped cautiously through the narrow doorway, rotating my head in either direction when the pain of my wounds threatened to knock me over. Facing forward again, I was staring down a long, narrow tunnel that was so dark, it appeared to have no end.
Everything was quiet and still, disturbingly so. Like the calm before a storm, something in the air made the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up. I defied the voice in my head that kept urging me to turn around and lock myself in the room I’d just emerged from. Or take my chances with this rescue party. But then I remembered how hard Lynn fought to free me from Larry and I knew I had to trust her.
“We have to get to the helicopter!” Her voice was a whisper but very earnest and it ricocheted off the tunnel walls.
Everything was happening so fast that it was practically impossible to wrap my head around it all.
Lynn stepped out from behind me and, as she did, I could clearly see her eyes darting all around us. With her right hand, she held the rifle pointed steadily in front of us and, with her left hand, she clasped something tightly against her ear, which I imagined was an earpiece.
Lynn glanced back at me. “We need to run.” Then she looked me up and down. “Do you think you can?”
“I can certainly try.” I ground my teeth together in frustration. Just breathing alone was already excruciating, so running seemed a far-fetched impossibility. I watched Lynn turn around and race ahead of me, her tall, athletic figure making it look far too easy. I began to trudge forward, silencing my agony every time my foot hit the hard concrete.
“You’re going to have to move a lot faster than that!”
A booming voice from behind stopped me dead in my tracks. Slowly, I turned around and found myself face-to-face with the monster of a man. The same one who previously tried to end Larry’s assault on me, Captain Barnham. Up close and personal now, he was more than massive and still clad in camouflage. His broad shoulders were probably twice the size of mine and his neck was as thick as the trunk of an oak tree. I had to tilt my head up just so I could see into his face. If he weren’t seven feet tall, he was pretty damn close to it. Large eyes popped against dark skin, staring back at me. He held a silver revolver, trained directly at my head, in a hand that made the weapon look small. “And don’t get any crazy ideas either,” he added.
“Captain, you made it!” Lynn’s voice rang out from behind me as she caught up with us.
“Of course I made it!” he replied, almost sounding annoyed by her observation. “You tell me the Cyphers have discovered our location and are on the way here, so of course I came. I want to make sure we get this piece of shit out of here before they have a chance to reacquire him.”
Clearly, Lynn hadn’t told Captain Bardham that she knew I wasn’t the Isaac Kent he believed I was. Despite my misgivings about that, I could hardly blame her. Whatever her true reasons were for believing me, obviously she didn’t think the captain would be as gullible. I had to be careful and avoid interacting with her in a way that would suggest that might be the case. Based on the way he referred to her, it seemed the captain was quite friendly with Lynn. I had a hunch that sentiment wouldn’t last too long if he happened to find out that Lynn was trying to help me.
“How far off are they?” the captain asked Lynn.
She took a few steps towards him and peeled back her fingers to reveal a small, black box that fit snugly in the palm of her hand. I squinted at it but had absolutely no clue as to what it could possibly be. A bright red light was coming from it and… it was humming, a clearly audible hum. I wondered how I hadn’t heard it previously.
“They’re close,” she answered. “Too close.”
“What is it?” I asked as I pointed to the device that was in her palm.
The captain glanced over at me. “You suffering from amnesia?”
Lynn frowned as she faced him. “He got hit in the head a few times and he’s still a little out of it,” she explained before she looked at me again. Clearly, the other Isaac would have known what the little, black box was.
“It’s specifically attuned to the frequencies of the Cyphers,” Lynn started. “It tells us how close they are.”
“We need to get to the copter,” the captain said. “Now!”
The hum that was coming from the device in Lynn’s hand, which was steadily increasing, suddenly became a wailing scream that shattered the silent air. My hands went instantly to my ears to muffle the noise but the thunderous roar of an explosion completely nixed that effort, rendering it futile.
Lynn and I fell to our knees although the force of the detonation didn’t seem to affect Bardham’s hulking figure. Not one bit. While I stared wildly around, he had already sprung into action. Removing an object from the front of his uniform, he yelled into it.
“We have incoming! Cyphers have broken thro
ugh the south side entrance. Arm yourselves!” Scowling with alarm, Bardham took the walkie-talkie and turned a dial on the top of it before speaking into the box once again. “Sergeant Nunez, do you copy?”
Loud, blaring static crackled back but Bardham wasn’t waiting for his response. Without another word, he took one big step toward Lynn and practically picked her up off the floor with a gigantic arm.
Turning in my direction, he glared at me with eyes that burned like the depths of hell. “Can you run?”
Completely unsteadily, I rose to my feet and gasped when the searing pain stretched across my whole body. I knew there was no way I could keep up with either one of them. I didn’t even try to speak. In the face of such an imposing man, all I could do was weakly shake my head no.
“Fuck me,” he grumbled as he turned his back to me and squatted down. I just stared at him blankly.
“Hurry up!” Lynn hissed. “Wrap your damn arms around his neck!”
I instantly obeyed. As soon as I placed my arms around Bardham’s neck, the giant stood up on his legs, thrusting me high into the air. I hung on as best I could. He, alongside Lynn, began to run into the direction we were originally headed in.
From directly behind us came the sound of gunfire. It echoed and bounced against the many walls of the long, narrow chasm. Single, loud, thumping bursts at first, they quickly adopted a frenzied pace, sounding one after the other so fast they could easily have been mistaken for one long blast. It was the symphony of many automatic weapons being fired all at once. I was certain they must have heard it, but Lynn and Bardham acted as if they hadn’t heard a thing, never faltering or slowing down.
Even after the screams started, they both kept their eyes locked steadfastly on the path in front of us. Cracking through the monotony of gunshots, the screams of anguish and pain were ceaseless. And they only got louder when we ran further away.
Bardham’s walkie-talkie suddenly came to life and a breathless voice yelled through the speaker. “Captain, do you read? Captain!?”
Bardham came to an abrupt stop. Lynn took a couple more steps before she too halted as she eyed us wearily.
“We have no time, Captain! They are right behind us!” she exclaimed, breathing heavily.
Bardham didn’t respond. Instead, he grabbed the walkie-talkie, thrusting it close to his face and speaking into it with a deep urgency in his voice. “Sergeant Nunez! Report immediately!”
Static ensued at first and then the sounds of chaos rang through the speaker. I could distinctly identify the repetitive fire and panic-filled voices before a single voice rang clearly though them once again. “Captain, we are sustaining heavy losses. There are too many of them! We are being massacred!”
Bardham spoke with a quiet reserve that I’m sure was intended to calm everyone down but, it made my blood go cold. “Is Carter still alive?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What about Jones?” the captain continued.
“Yes, sir.”
“Sergeant, get Jones, the doctor, and any other survivors and meet me at the airstrip. And don’t take your fucking time! Meet us at the airstrip in no more than five minutes. Do you copy?”
“Sir, yes sir.”
Bardham placed the walkie-talkie inside his uniform and broke into a run again.
“What the hell are you thinking, Captain? We won’t have time to wait for everyone!” Lynn argued pointedly.
“For someone who was all about preserving our humanity earlier, you certainly aren’t too concerned about saving the lives of your fellow man now, are you Lynn?” the captain retorted angrily. “Regardless, we need the doctor and you know how important Jones is when it comes to hacking into databases. They’re crucial enough that we should wait for them.”
Lynn nodded her begrudging acknowledgement and fell silent. The sounds of Bardham’s heavy footsteps hitting the concrete and the fading screams mixed in with an occasional, yet brief flutter of gunfire comprised the unique symphony we heard all the rest of the way.
Chapter 12.5
Waypoint Station
The Axis of Time
Outside of Time
“Damn confounded machine!!” Sirius yelled, kicking out his foot in a half-hearted attempt to strike the console.
Sweat poured from his forehead, trickling into his eyes and clouding his vision. He swiped at it furiously. He could afford no distractions, no extra obstacles to complicate what he was currently doing now. Since KT-1’s departure, he had been working to get the Axis viewing systems back online. No simple feat; which was only compounded by the immensely helpful robot’s absence. She remained the main point of contact with the computer, basically starting from the very day she arrived at the Axis. Sirius was in way over his head.
In his initial efforts to try and diagnose the issue plaguing the viewing systems, Sirius walked into the Main Operating Room. He inspected each aspect of hardware and every line of wire to see if the problem lay there. He thought that during his first visit, Isaac Kent must have caused physical damage to this area. It was beyond the purview of the room that contained the monitors and served essentially as the heart of the entire Axis. To his absolute annoyance, everything checked out okay. The physical hardware was undisturbed and functioning normally. All the wires were intact, as if no one had ever been there.
As he walked back up to the main room, his mind raced with myriad questions. What did Isaac Kent do while he was there? How could he sneak into the Axis and remain completely undetected? If he hadn’t smashed or disturbed anything, then what did he do to cause such an instrumental system to fail?
More questions. So far, there were no answers. The long walk back allowed Sirius time to come up with another plan. Upon entering the room, he directed the Axis computers to respond to his voice and assist him in getting to the root of the problem. The system had obediently responded by informing him to run a complete scan of all software that was currently overseeing system functions. The first time he did that, the report came back with a clean bill of health. Thinking it an error, Sirius ran it again. And again. By the end of the fourth cycle, Sirius threw his arms up in frustration.
“Computer, I have run repeated diagnostics on system functions and everything appears to be working perfectly fine! You must look deeper into that metal frame of yours and tell me exactly what needs to be done to fix you!”
The voice that blared through the room was heavily automated and male. “RUN SYSTEM SCAN.”
Sirius threw up his arms in disgust. “Damn it! I already told you that I’ve run that infernal scan multiple times without becoming the wiser! Certainly there must be something else that I can do or check?”
“RUN SYSTEM SCAN,” the computer repeated, clearly not registering or caring about Sirius’s growing impatience.
“Great. Just wonderful,” Sirius hissed into the air. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you didn’t want to be fixed!”
“RUN SYSTEM SCAN.”
“Okay. Enough!” Sirius shouted back, nearly losing his cool and striking the computer! That would have gotten him nowhere but it was mighty tempting all the same. It became fairly obvious at this point that his method of communicating with the system computer was lacking in efficiency and not as effective as KT-1’s was.
“Computer, can you at least tell me where Isaac Kent went while he was here during his initial visit? When he brought the viewing systems down? Perhaps that will give me an idea of where to start,” Sirius pleaded, growing weary and clean out of ideas.
“PROCESSING.” A long pause ensued. Finally, an answer. “YES.”
“Yes?” Sirius repeated. “Yes, as in you can?”
“YES.”
Sirius sighed. Such a daft machine. “Tell me then!”
“SUBJECT ISAAC KENT WAS IN THE MAIN OPERATING ROOM FOR APPROXMATELY TEN MINUTES.”
Sirius shook his head in bewilderment. “I was just in there and I saw absolutely nothing wrong!” Ten min
utes?! How the hell did he manage to spend so much time undetected?! Baffled by his own question, Sirius went out on a limb and decided to ask the computer. “Computer, how did Isaac Kent manage to bypass all the security protocols?”
The computer’s answer nearly sent Sirius into a hissy fit. “RUN SYSTEM SCAN.”
Stupid machine! Thankfully, there was more than one way to get answers. “Computer,” Sirius spoke, doing his very best to keep the anger out of his voice. “Pull up security footage of the Main Operating Room at the time Isaac Kent was in there. Hopefully, we can see what he did so we can fix it already!”
“PROCESSING.”
A holographic image of a room packed floor-to-ceiling with hardware, wires and intermittently blinking lights appeared abruptly in front of him. It was the Main Operating Room. He instantly recognized the figure of Isaac Kent standing smack dab in the middle of the room. He was wearing a collared shirt with either sleeve rolled up to expose both his forearms and Sirius felt his chest noticeably tighten as he focused his eyes on the tattoos that adorned them. Those tattoos, the very instrument used by Isaac to escape from the Axis when Sirius and KT-1 had forced him back to the Axis using the Skypunches. Sirius reasoned that Isaac must have used them to somehow get to and breach the Axis the first time.
But how?!How could the Time Force have manifested in him to begin with?!
That same infuriating question continued to plague him, the absence of an answer merely augmenting it a hundred-fold. To push the thought far from his mind, Sirius stared directly at the tattoos. Just as they had when he’d first looked upon them, the very sight of the tattoos caused Sirius’s mind to race. It was as if he had seen them before, like an unrelenting wave of déjà vu; but no matter how hard Sirius tried, he still wasn’t able to figure out why.